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Students’ Drop Out, Higher Education

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Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions

Synonyms

Decision to leave higher education; Definitive abandonment of higher education; Noncompletion of higher education; Withdrawal of higher education

Definition

One of the core definitions of drop out has been put forward by Tinto (1975) who conceptualized it as a voluntary process in which students withdraw from higher education without completing the academic program in which they are enrolled. In other words, it is a situation where students, once attending higher education, voluntarily give up and not complete their studies at a later time (Castaño et al. 2008). It is therefore different from students’ temporary abandoning their studies, which may be followed by their later return to higher education, thus reflecting nonpermanent or nondefinitive drop out (Montmarquette et al. 2001). In this sense, drop out must be differentiated from other similar phenomena such as study interruption, change in degree program or subject, change of institution, change of type of higher...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. A3ES, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sonia Cardoso & Orlanda Tavares

  2. CIPES, Matosinhos, Portugal

    Sonia Cardoso & Orlanda Tavares

Authors
  1. Sonia Cardoso
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  2. Orlanda Tavares
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonia Cardoso .

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© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Cardoso, S., Tavares, O. (2018). Students’ Drop Out, Higher Education. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_432-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_432-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

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